A general storage system is configured of a host computer in which various types of applications are operating, a storage device providing data storage areas for the applications, a network equipment such as switches connecting the host computer and the storage device communicatively.
The vendor of the storage system unifies the components configuring the storage systems by the communication protocol (e.g. SCSI (Small Computer Serial Interface), TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)) used for the communication interface among the host computer, the network equipment, and the storage device.
However, the hardware of the various types of equipment used as the components of the storage system and the algorithms of the programs controlling the input/output among the equipment (such as firmware/device driver) largely differ depending on the version and, even if the same communication protocol is used, normal input/output of data may not always be performed when the components are combined as a storage system. Furthermore, even if the combination enables data input/output, the performance as the storage system (e.g. data traffic, response time, and IOPS) may not always be maximized.
Therefore, generally when constructing a storage system, it is necessary to determine the version of the hardware of the equipment and the control programs executed in that hardware, actually connect the equipment, and examine whether the desired performance can be obtained as the storage system. For performing this examining process easily and efficiently, various types of technologies have been proposed conventionally. For example, PTL 1 discloses the technology of unifying the management of the connection configuration of the storage system by the storage device, which enables the reliability in changing part of the components to be estimated in advance. Meanwhile, PTL 2 proposes the configuration providing the user with the reliability information such as the compatibility and the stability of the components of the storage system.